Officers ID’d in Friday shooting that followed two knife attacks
Las Vegas police have identified two officers who shot a man after he allegedly stabbed two women in the west valley Friday, in the first of two officer-involved shootings within a period of 24 hours.
Police received reports of a man stabbing a woman inside a Regional Transportation Commission bus about 12:50 p.m. Friday, near Spring Mountain Road and Rainbow Boulevard. The suspect later stabbed another woman on the street and ran away from officers, Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Jamie Prosser said Friday.
Booking and jail records identify Caleb Rydlin Hill, 38, as a suspect in the stabbings. He was booked on two counts of attempted murder and another count of resisting an officer with a weapon that wasn’t a gun.
Officer Keith Hannof shot the man when he was near an occupied bus stop when the suspect failed to stop and let go of the knife, police said. Officer Beaumont Hopson shot the man with a low-lethal beanbag shotgun prior to Hannof firing, but because Hopson was within 5 yards of the man it is considered lethal force, police said.
The man was hospitalized in critical condition at University Medical Center on Friday, Prosser said.
Before the shooting, the suspect stabbed a woman multiple times inside the bus, police said. The woman escaped and ran for help. The man got off the bus, grabbed another woman in a chokehold and stabbed her, police said.
The second woman escaped as police arrived. Both women were treated and released from the county hospital.
Prosser said there was no connection between the women and the suspect.
“We believe it to be completely random,” she said Friday.
When the man tried to flee, officers used a stun gun to no effect. He ran toward a bus stop on the west sidewalk of South Rainbow Boulevard when officer Hopson, 52, shot the man with the beanbag shotgun, also without effect.
Hannof, 43, then shot the man when he was next to the bus stop, police said.
Hannof has worked for Metro since November 2008, and Hopson has worked with the department since November 2005. Both officers are assigned to the community policing division’s Spring Valley Area Command and were placed on routine paid administrative leave while the shooting is reviewed.
An anonymous person took cellphone footage of officers attempting to stop the man while he jogged away Friday. The video shows an officer shooting the suspect multiple times with his handgun.
No officers were injured. Per Metro policy, police will release additional information 72 hours after the shooting.
Friday’s police shooting was the seventh of eight by Metro officers this month. On Saturday morning, officers fatally shot a man who was waving a gun at civilians and police, and pointing it at himself, outside a central valley apartment, police said.
Nine of Metro’s 18 officer-involved shootings in 2018 have been fatal. The Henderson Police Department also had a police shooting this month.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.
